Following the unfortunate death of the countless monsters, undead, skeletons and necromancers who ended up being dragged into the vortex formed by the dungeon core and turned into building material for that part of the blank dungeon floor, the ones who managed to just barely avoid death began wandering the blank dungeon floor without any clear goal in mind.
The necromancers and the few undead and skeletons they managed to save had no idea what to do and attempted to find the leading necromancer for guidance, while the monsters were even more clueless about what to do. Roaming around aimlessly before most of them ultimately found themselves being swallowed by the expanding circle of development under the control of the dungeon core.
The only one with any idea on what to do in this kind of situation was none other than the leading necromancer, who had already snuck close to the circle of development under the control of the dungeon core. Searching for a spot where the development was progressing slower before settling down, waiting for an opportunity to rush forth and break into the already developed part of the dungeon. Planning to find a place inside close to the dungeon core where she could hide while the ninth floor of the dungeon was finished.
Knowing that there was little chance of her being discovered by the dungeon core once she got inside, as most of the dungeon core’s attention would either be focused on the development of the ninth floor or potential disturbances taking place within the blank dungeon floor that had yet to be fully incorporated into being a part of the dungeon core itself.
Problem was, the opportunity she was waiting around for didn’t look like it was going to come anytime soon, as the shift in attention caused by her and everyone else falling down into the ninth floor of the dungeon had already been settled, as the development of what she personally hoped would be a special location filled with death energy, undead and skeletons roaming around, had already been completed.
Unfortunately, though part of her wanted to go and see what the dungeon core had ended up creating, a thin mist seemed to block her from seeing what had been created by the dungeon core.
And not just the thing that had been created from the millions of bodies, but the already completed part of the dungeon was also hidden from view. Giving those outside no chance to see what might be waiting for them on the other side of the mist. Only giving someone a sense of the inevitability of the expanding mist that was slowly covering the entirety of the blank dungeon floor.
Of course, to escape from this kind of situation, there was also another method she hadn’t thought about using before and that was to jump off the side of the dungeon and try to rely on leaving the dungeon momentarily to avoid being swallowed up by the dungeon core as building material.
However, there was a good reason why this option wasn’t considered... And that was the simple fact that the empty void beyond the boundaries of a dungeon wasn’t exactly empty and strange lifeforms of unimaginable strength could be found roaming around this void.
Not to mention, getting back into a dungeon once one jumped off the edge was easier said than done, as the current within the empty void made it close to impossible for anyone but the extremely rare spatial mages to navigate, with most losing sight of the dungeon almost immediately after stepping into the empty void that the dungeon existed within.
And that was without considering the simple fact that the lower one was within a dungeon, the more deadly the empty void would be, as it was further away from the material plane that at least made travel and exploration possible within the first few dungeon floors.
But beyond the first three or so dungeon floors, survival was essential deemed impossible and even facing an almost certain death situation like the one that stood before her and the surviving necromancers still searching for her within the blank dungeon floor, none would dare think about trying to escape into the void, as that was more so a more horrible way to end themselves.
Lost in thought as time continued to pass like this and several necromancers managed to find their way to her and wait together with her for an opening; the dungeon core had already expanded to engulf more than half of the blank dungeon floor. Integrating the part of the dungeon that had been created from the countless lives of those who hadn’t been able to get back up to escape before being dragged down to the still developing ninth floor of the dungeon.
In the process, a few people had fallen from above and suffered the same fate as those who had come before, but from this point onwards. Anyone who ended up falling from above would be safe and didn’t have to worry about the dungeon core turning them into building material any longer.
Well... Not entirely safe, as the dungeon core had undoubtedly also filled the completed part of the dungeon with its initial batch of monsters. Monsters that would undoubtedly not be simple to deal with even if they had essentially been created just to fill in numbers and ensure there were monsters around before a natural cycle of growth and development could take hold for the newly born monster population of the ninth floor of the dungeon.
...
Unaware of the changing situation down below and the fact that they wouldn’t be in any danger after falling down into the abyss of darkness leading to the ninth floor of the dungeon, Scaly along with Verdell and the others being dragged down towards the abyss below were all panicking visibly as they found themselves being dragged downwards.
Even though Scaly had no idea what waited for her on the other side, the information shared amongst the different still surviving necromancers and Verdell had been more than enough to give her a clear picture of just how deadly a still developing dungeon floor was.
Because of this, she was somewhat taken aback when the only thing she saw upon passing through the thin black veil dividing the eighth floor from the ninth floor was an empty wheat field that stretched on as far as the eye could see.
The only thing out of the ordinary being the few lone dreary trees with drooping branches scattered across the wheat field and the thin black miasma that seemed to cover the wheat field.
Outside of that, there was nothing of interest that she could see, let alone any powerful monsters or other deadly threats that she had originally believed she would end up encountering given how those necromancers had described the dangers of a dungeon floor still under development.
However, even if she couldn’t see a single monster around her after landing on the wheat field below, she didn’t dare lower her guard in the slightest. Remembering clearly how the vast armies of monsters and undead alike had fallen into the abyss leading to the ninth floor of the dungeon before any of them... And how both seemingly massive armies weren’t only nowhere to be found but also showed no signs of ever having been anywhere around the wheat field.
After all, even if they had already left the place, they should have at least left some traces behind- of which there was none no matter where she looked.
Like the two massive armies composed of hundreds of thousands of beings on both sides had seemingly just vanished into thin air upon landing within the wheat field.
Of course, outside of this worry, there was also the very real worry that the group of adventurers that had remained docile so far because of the circumstances would turn hostile now that there wasn’t any other threats around and she could be considered the strongest threat to this little group of adventurers with only the existence of Verdell on her back providing her some confidence that the group wouldn’t be attacking her.
Having heard a bit of their chatter over how they suspected Verdell to be some powerful adventurer, as they had directly mistaken her earlier actions as him being the one controlling her as a powerful monster tamer, something that was laughable, but given how it was helping her out, she decided to ignore the annoying group of adventurers who had directly presumed she was Verdell’s pet of some kind.
If it helped her avoid a deadly battle on this strange dungeon floor for now, she was more than happy to just ignore this group of adventurers for now and look for another opportunity to take revenge on them in the future for presuming she was some pet.
First order of business, figure out what was so strange about this floor of the dungeon and where all those monsters, undead and necromancers had disappeared to.